A Scene from the Zombie Apocalypse
by Matthew Penn
Summary: Accidentally separated from their big family, Rita and Lily find themselves trapped in a basement, hiding from the walking dead as they overrun the streets of Royal Woods. Done as a special request for crafordbrian17.


Things have been considerably difficult for the Loud family since the zombie apocalypse began. Everything has gone completely out of whack that Lisa's bunker no longer became of use for her. And it was mostly her fault to begin with, as well as Lucy. Lisa and Lucy wanted to bring the dead to life using their combined knowledge of science and magic, which in retrospect was a terrible idea. Now Royal Woods was overrun with zombies, and quite possibly, the whole world will follow.

Lisa explained it may take her a long period of time to correct this, but promised civilization will not fall to the undead. The others were somewhat relieved, besides Lucy, who really enjoyed the chaos and disorder of the apocalypse. Lynn Loud Sr. decided to punish the two later when all this blows over.

Lincoln formed an escape plan and had everyone bring walkie-talkies, in case of an emergency. The plan was to leave the city for elsewhere, a safe location the zombies haven't attack, where Lisa can perform her experiments and where Lucy can ask the deceased for help. Unfortunately their van broke down. They found themselves surrounded by the undead, coming out of nowhere from the darkness and shadows. There was no time to think, so the family had to split up, promising to meet up at a safe location.

Scrambling into several different groups Rita was left with Lily. She ran and ran, then ran some more. Those zombies were not going to get her or her child. Only she didn't know which way to run. If only Rita and her husband could've convinced everyone to stay together. Hopefully no harm will come to any of them. Right now she had to worry about herself and Lily.

The zombies weren't fast, which allowed her to cover great distances, although only for a little while. Rita felt herself running out of breath. She tried not to look back, but she just couldn't help it. Despite being dark she can clearly see the walking dead attempting to catch up with her. Their putrid smell assaulted her senses, almost making her vomit. She told Lily to cover her eyes.

Rita stopped at a house, frantically twisting the knob only to find it was lock. She banged on the door to be let in but there was no answer. With no other options she kicked the door down, a trick she learned from her daughter Lynn, closing the door quickly. She peeked behind the curtains. The zombies, their flesh and limbs falling off as they walked, surrounded the streets but didn't seem concerned about her.

She sighed with relief, but Lily began to whimper. The chase must have frightened the little baby. Rita swore she will punish both Lisa and Lucy for forcing their baby sister to be in this living nightmare. "Don't worry, sweetie, mama's here," cooed Rita. She carried Lily to the couch. There were times when Lynn Sr. regarded Lily as the "Forgotten Loud." From what the two of them have seen, Lily is somewhat smart and capable of doing things herself, although at the end of the day she was still a baby, and who needs to be taken care of.

Rita may be the only one in the family who realizes this.

She cradled Lily in her arms. The baby stopped whimpering, but was still a little shook having being chased by zombies in the dark. Finally Lily was asleep in her arms. Good. The youngest Loud had a habit of crying a lot, but it didn't take much to put her to rest. All she needed was proper care, and for someone to let her know she wasn't alone. Rita decided to spend more time sitting down, then go outside to make sure the coast was clear so the two of them can rendezvous with the rest of the family. If only she'd get off the couch. Actually, she never realized how tired she was. She didn't know if it was running, the stress from the apocalypse, or all those years of performing her motherly duties had somehow gotten to her. Either way there was no stopping it now. Rita let out a yawn. Her eyelids grew heavy, teasing the blackness to come until they shut completely.

Sometime later Rita jumped back up. She didn't know how long she had been asleep. On the television was nothing but static, tuned to a dead channel. The house was still silent, which means Lynn and the kids are not home yet. She tried to remember what happened. Everything before she shut her eyes became a blur, like someone buried her recent memories to the back of her mind.

She felt something was missing.

"Lily!" she said to herself. The baby was gone. It didn't make sense. She had been asleep with her, that much Rita remembered. How could she escaped just like that? She searched for Lily all over the house, berating herself of letting her sneak off. What kind of mother loses her child in their sleep?

She heard giggling coming from somewhere. "Lily?" Rita called out. The little girl's cooing grew prominent, so she followed the sweet sound until she arrived at the basement. How did she get down there? Rita found a flashlight and made her descent; as soon as she entered the dark her motherly instincts kicked in.

"Lily?" she called out again.

Her foot touched the surface, and reached her arm out to find the switch. She flipped it several times. No light. At least she had the flashlight. Rita called for the baby again. Lily giggling felt closer than ever. She flashed the light at a pile of laundry, finding the baby girl on top. "Lily? How did you get there?" she asked. The baby answered in her usual baby way. Rita placed the flashlight down and picked her up. "Let's get you out of here," she said. She didn't want to admit it to anyone, but she hated going down to the basement at night. It reminded her of her childhood night terrors of being trapped in the dark, alone.

Speaking of which, she tried to find the stairs. She waved her flashlight around. Somehow the stairs and the door above had disappeared into the dark. Lily's smile slowly went down. She looked up at her mother, wondering why aren't they leaving. Rita returned that same look to her.

"Poo-poo?" asked Lily.

Rita knew that tone of voice all too well. "Don't worry, Lily-Bily. We'll be out soon," she reassured her, although she wasn't sure of it herself. Deep inside she was frightened. She hated the dark. She hated not knowing what was behind the shadows, what sounds were emanating from the blackness. However, she stayed strong for Lily.

Her flashlight found a miniature-sized door on the wall. That's strange. She didn't remember that being there. But she'll take any way out of the basement she can find. Rita crouched down to open it, inspecting the passageway with her flashlight. Nothing but more darkness. She put Lily down and put the flashlight in her small hands. "Stay here," she said. Crouching down again she tried to squeeze through, but her hips were stuck. "Dang hips," she muttered. "Why are they so wide?" Rita always knew her wide hips will cause her trouble one day. Lynn comforted her by saying there were his favorite part of her, but she knew better. Although the kids tried to get her to exercise, she reminded herself when Lisa and Lucy fixed this she will try to lose some weight.

Lily watched her mother struggling to get through, until she heard something. "Poo-poo?" she asked the darkness. There was sound of objects getting knocked to the floor, followed by painful moaning. The baby pointed the flashlight at what was approaching them.

A zombie. A zombie found its way into the house and was coming after them

"Poo-poo!" Lily screamed.

"Honey what is it?" Rita said frantically.

Lily stood up to force her mother through the small passageway, trying push Rita through the small door was like trying to push a whale. It couldn't be done. The zombie was getting closer, closer, ready to eat them for its next meal.

From inside the tunnel Rita can feel the deathly presence of the zombie. But there was no time for fear, not when her infant daughter is involved. With a newfound resolve she said through gritted teeth "Not today!" While Lily forced her mother's backside with her little arms Rita sucked in her breath and forced herself forward. Before the zombie can swipe the baby with its rotten hand, Lily finally pushed her mother forward, quickly crawling inside to join her.

"Lily?" Rita called out in the dark. The baby crawled from underneath her, responding with nonsensical babble only a mother can understand. "Oh, my baby!" she cried out. Rita made sure Lily stayed in front of her before continuing. They can hear the zombie having attempting to crawl in the tunnel, so she had to move fast. The passage was extremely difficult to crawl through. Her hips brushed against the dirt walls, bring pain to her sides, but she kept going.

Meanwhile another zombie found itself in the basement. It saw its fellow undead walker trying to crawl through the hole, getting stuck in the process. Since zombies couldn't see in the dark or navigate their way through stairs without falling, they were trapped. All they can do moan their ghastly, death-filled moan.

Rita pushed forward, ignoring the dust that fell on her hair and eyes and how painful the sides of her hips will be after brushing against the sides. "Stupid hips!" she mumbled. Although she and Lily were safe from the zombies for now, Rita didn't know which way she was going. She hope there wasn't a dead end.

At the end of the tiny passageway was a medium-sized door. It was Lily who pointed it out. Rita reached her arm toward the door, seeing it was lock. "Dang it," she said. She then told Lily to cover her ears while she called out in a loud voice. "Help! Help!" she yelled. It might attract to attention of zombies, but there was no other option.

"Mom! Where are you?" a familiar voice said. It sounded distant and muffled, but she knew that voice as clear as day. It belonged to her only son, Lincoln.

"Oh thank God! Lincoln, who is up there with you?"

"It's just me and Lynn? How did you get underground?" he asked.

"There's no time to explain! I need the two of you to open the door! I have Lily with me!"

Lynn, her daughter, explained the door had a lock attached to it, and they couldn't find a key anywhere. They were in the backyard of someone's house, and had decided at the time to use the door for shelter, until they heard their mother inside. She must have been in so much distress from being alone with the baby running from zombies that the two children instantly felt terrible for them, with Lincoln berating himself for leaving them behind. "Don't worry, sweetie, we were all caught in the moment," Rita assured him. "Now I need someone to open this door, quickly!"

"Wait… I think I saw an axe in the garage," said Lynn. "I can try to chop the lock in half!"

Both Rita and Lincoln were aghast at that idea, but seeing they had few options their mother gave Lynn permission to use it. "Just be careful!" she reminded her. Lynn rack back into the garage to grab the axe. She took a closer look at the lock. It looked a little rusty; it probably had been then for years if not decades, but Lynn thought she can take it apart easily. She raised the weapon and paced herself. With one swift moment she lowered it. The lock broke under the sharp impact.

After several more swings the lock was loose. Lynn and Lincoln pulled the door open, then pulled Rita and Lily from the dust-filled passage, and the four Louds embraced each other. They stayed like that, savoring each happy moment until they heard glass breaking, a woman shrieking, and the undead moan from a few streets away.

"Where is everyone else?" asked Rita.

"We don't know," said Lincoln. "Lynn and I were planning to gather everyone and head straight to the Royal Woods Mall. It's the one place to be when a zombie apocalypse happens!"

Lincoln was right about one thing, Rita thought. She is sure her son has watched enough horror movies to figure that out. With no time to lose they ran out of the backyard and into the street to find the rest of their big family. Lynn took the axe with her, using it as her weapon against the zombies. It took Rita a few moments later to see Lincoln had been carrying a baseball bat as his weapon of choice. Their mother was sure about one thing: there is no way in hell will she let any of them use a chainsaw.


End file.
